Dale Coyne faces Nick Jenman this weekend in Bolton

Unbeaten middleweight Dale Coyne gets his stiffest test to date on Saturday June 16 when he faces Nick Jenman at the Bolton Whites Hotel.

Coyne tops the VIP Promotions card – streamed live and free on vipboxing.tv – and the Ancoats fighter, 13-0 (3), could well be upset if he isn’t on top form against the Brighton fighter.

Jenman, 20-11-1 (3), has become a gatekeeper to the 11st 6lbs division, and is often only beaten by fighters heading for bigger things. The 32-year-old has previously given both Tommy Langford and Jack Arnfield some decent work, but was stopped in two rounds in April by Commonwealth Middleweight Champion Liam Cameron, after stepping in as a late substitute.

“I don’t know too much about him, but he’s a live opponent, coming to win,” said Dale, when speaking to VIP Promotions TV. “He’ll come with just as much ambition as I will; he’s needs the win as much as I do, so it should turn out to be a good fight.”

Trained by Steve Maylett, Dale is a stablemate to former world champion Terry Flanagan, with the pair regularly training together. Still only 23, Coyne is looking for a standout win against Jenman to round off the boxing season, before pushing on for titles next year.

“Training has gone great, I’ve been training for nine or ten weeks. I’ve been in with Terry [Flanagan] and ticking over, then when we got the date we stepped up and I’m right where I want to be now.

“It’s the perfect time, when you’re 24 or 25, you want to be up at the British [Title] area, and then you can kick on from there. I feel like the time’s right and I just leave Steve [Wood] in charge to guide my career. He’s done a great job with Terry and the other lads he’s had, so I just keep my head down in the gym and listen to him.”

“This is a really decent test for Dale, and we’ll be able to gauge where he’s at afterwards,” explained manager and promoter, Steve Wood. “Don’t be fooled by Jenman’s KO loss to Liam Cameron, he lost controversially to Andrew Robinson in the fight before that, and that’s the Nick Jenman we’re expecting.

“We always put on a good show at the Bolton Whites Hotel, and this is another that I’m really looking forward to. As well as the bill-topper, we’ve also got talented fighters like Liam Taylor and Jack Cullen on, as well as big-punching Mark Thompson who is having his first fight of 2018.”